Gnocchi Marsala

First, let's talk about the gnocchi. I LOVE gnocchi. When I was in Italy, I looked for gnocchi on every single menu. I cheated and bought pre-made gnocchi for this recipe, but I'm not mad about that at all. You can either buy gnocchi in a shelf stable package along with the other pastas in the grocery store, or you can find prepared gnocchi in the freezer section of the grocery store. I prefer the texture of the packaged gnocchi over the frozen, plus you can't beat the fact that it can sit right in your pantry along with your other pasta. So, that's what I used for this recipe.

We're going to cook our gnocchi in some nice and salty water until they just start to float to the top of the pot. The goal is to time the cook of the gnocchi so that it lines up with the cooking time on our sauce. That way, we can take the gnocchi straight from their cooking water to the sauce, and they won't have to sit and risk overcooking or getting gummy.

For our sauce, we start with some sliced (or finely minced, if you're me) baby bella mushrooms. I love the deep earthy flavor of a baby bellas, so they are perfect for this sauce. We'll cook them in some olive oil until they start to brown and caramelize, then we'll add in lots of minced garlic to help the mushrooms become nice and fragrant.

Once our mushrooms and garlic are finished sauteeing, we're going to add in some marsala wine and some stock. Now, I told you I've been making this recipe on repeat, and that's no joke. I've tried this with chicken stock, beef stock, and vegetable stock. They all are equally as delicious in this sauce, so we have some flexibility to use what you have. But, for the sake of keeping this meal vegetarian, we're using veggie stock in today's recipe.

We're going to let our liquids simmer until they're reduced by about half, then we pour in some heavy cream. Let that simmer a little longer until the sauce starts to thicken by just a smidge. Then, the sauce is ready for our pillowy little gnocchi plus a little bit of the gnocchi's cooking water. Remember, we cooked the gnocchi in some nice, salty water; so that's going to help season our sauce. But give it a taste, and add just another little pinch of salt and pepper to the sauce until it tastes like absolute perfection.

The sauce will seem a little thin at first, but it will thicken up a little as it cools. So, our finished product is this rich, creamy, umami tasting sauce coating our soft, fluffy little nuggets of pasta heaven.

Do you understand now why I can't stop making this dish?!?

This whole meal comes together in less than 30 minutes, it uses fairly inexpensive and humble ingredients, and it is sooooo flavorful for not a ton of effort at all. This is easily on its way to becoming one of my most made meals of all time!

Ok, everyone. That's another Meatless Monday in the books. And honestly, meat who? I definitely prefer this meal now without the meat!

I hope you love this bowl of creamy comfort as much as I do!

Enjoy, and let's eat!